Kings' first goal is getting first goal

The Ducks get on top first in Game 3 on Thursday on Corey Perry's first-period goal. The Kings are hoping to get in front first in Game 4 on Saturday. MICHAEL GOULDING, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

EL SEGUNDO – Coaches can analyze video and fiddle with line combinations, but they all know the truth.

Score the first goal, win the game. It’s not always true, although it’s practically the gospel when it comes to the Kings and these playoffs. With an early lead, they become a different team, one difficult to overcome.

In Thursday’s Game 3 against the Ducks, the Kings rarely put themselves in position to score. They struggled mightily with neutral-zone turnovers and infrequently entered the offensive zone with any momentum. The Ducks scored a power-play goal 4:06 into the first period, and the Kings couldn’t dictate the pace of the game.

That pace? Slower. Heavier. Lots of contact and work along the boards. Stout through the neutral zone and tight in front of goalie Jonathan Quick, not allowing opponents to set up for deflections or rebounds.

“I think good starts are really important,” defenseman Alec Martinez said Friday. “That’s something we have preached all year, especially in the playoffs. You want to get off to a good start, play your game, establish some momentum and how you’re going to play the rest of the night. Obviously that first goal is huge.”

Going into Saturday’s Game 4 at Staples Center, the Kings have won six games in this postseason, and in five of those games, they scored the first goal within the first 10 minutes.

That meshes with the regular season, when the Kings won 46 games and scored the first goal in 36 of them. League-wide, in the regular season, the team that scored the first goal went on to win in regulation 79.3 percent of the time.

That percentage has dropped to 72.6 in the playoffs, because of a baffling trend of multi-goal comebacks, but not for the Kings, who are completely comfortable when they get a lead and go into bunker mentality.

“I think, every time, you want to score the first goal and then build off that,” center Anze Kopitar said.

Game 2 against the Ducks is a prime example. Marian Gaborik scored 34 seconds into the first period, and the Kings led for all but 2:27 of the game. The Ducks outshot them by a wide margin, but the Kings looked calm on defense and kept most of the Ducks’ scoring chances to the perimeter.

Contrast that to Game 3, in which the Ducks scored early. The Kings looked anxious. They tried to force the puck through the neutral zone and, too often, turned it over, leading to chances for the Ducks.

That led to a lot of expended energy in the defensive zone. The Kings don’t mind that late in games when they’re nursing a narrow lead, but it’s a much tougher way to play when they’re also seeking a tying goal.

“It’s just managing the puck,” Kopitar said. “When you give them opportunities off our mistakes, it’s never a good thing. We did that in the first series and we’ve done that a couple times now too, where it burns us.”

OFF THE ICE

Sticking with their between-games routine, the Kings did not practice Friday. They are expected to skate Saturday morning, but the status of injured defensemen Willie Mitchell and Robyn Regehr remains unknown.

The Kings seemed to be in good spirits, even after their six-game playoff win streak ended Thursday and they missed a chance to take a 3-0 series lead against the Ducks at home. Coach Darryl Sutter, who regularly takes contrarian positions, said he thought Game 3 was the Kings’ best game of the series.

“Nobody thought, on our part, that we were going to blow (the Ducks) out right away,” Kopitar said. “It’s obviously nice to win on the road, but now we’ve got to take care of business at home.”

FUTA PROMOTED

The Kings promoted Michael Futa to vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel. Futa, who had served as the Kings’ co-director of amateur scouting since 2007, was reportedly a candidate for the Vancouver Canucks’ vacant general manager job this month.

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